Organised Chaos As Diplomatic Ruse and Demographic Weapon

Emre Erol ORGANISED CHAOS AS DIPLOMATIC RUSE AND DEMOGRAPHIC WEAPON The expulsion of the Ottoman Greeks (Rum) from Foça, 1914 Abstract The process of transition from Ottoman Empire to nation states witnessed dramatic changes in the demographic and socio-economic structures of the once imperial lands. The summer of organized chaos in Foça, an Ottoman boomtown in Western Anatolia, represents one of the chapters of this dramatic transition. After the Balkan Wars, Foça became one of the contested zones of Greek and Ottoman Muslim nationalisms. In 1914, Young Turk clandestine opera- tions ousted the Greek majority of Foça right before to outbreak of the World War i. This article argues that this particular demographic project can only be un- derstood within a wider context. The nationalist rivalry between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Greece, unresolved issues of the Balkan Wars and Young Turks’ radicalization, together with their monopolization of power played crucial roles in the way nationalist competition and inter-ethnic tensions were “imported” into the region. The case of Foça provides a good example showing how such policies of demographic engineering developed in relation to dynamic changes of the period rather than being master planned in retrospect. The case of Foça also shows us that those who were subjected to nationalist violence are more likely to participate in nationalist projects. This paper discusses this over the comparison of natives’ roles and perceptions of the forced migration as opposed to those of the Muslim refugees from the Balkans. Introduction When salt from Ottoman Eski Foça1 won a medal2 for being a significant export at the famous Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Eski Foça was already a burgeoning town that was expanding as the result of its growing population 1. It is also referred to as Phokaia and/or Phocaea in English/Latin, Παλαιά Φώκαια in Modern Greek, Παλαιάσ Φώκαιασ in Classical Greek and Foça-i Atik or Karaca Foça in Otto- man documents. Today in Turkey it is known as Eski Foça. 2. BOA (Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi),YA. Hus, 288/55, 10/B /1311. tijdschrift voor sociale en economische geschiedenis 10 [2013] nr. 4, pp. 66-96 Organised chaos as diplomatic ruse and demographic weapon » 67 and economic vigour. Located to the northwest of İzmir/Smyrna, a promi- nent cosmopolitan trade hub in the Mediterranean, Eski Foça was the central town of the county of Foçateyn. Eski Foça, which had been a boomtown since the mid-nineteenth century, was one of the many trade hubs in the eastern Mediterranean that grew as the result of the incorporation of the region into the world economy. The county, together with settlements such as Yeni Foça (Νέες Φώκιες), Gerenköy (Γκερένκιοϊ), Kozbeyli (Κούζμπεγλί) and Ulupınar, was producing important goods for both internal and external markets. These products were shipped from the port of Eski Foça, and a variety of imports were brought into the empire through the port as well. Located on the western Anatolian coast, Foçateyn was part of the central regions of what is tradition- ally referred to as the “core empire.” However, in the early twentieth century this positive situation was destined for dramatic changes and, ultimately, the boomtown of Eski Foça would become a ghost town. In the spring of 1914 (just before World War One), organised chaos was used against the local Rum (Ottoman Greeks) in Foça, marking the beginning of this transition. It should be noted, however, that this turning point is just one chapter in the larger transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic. In Foçateyn, this transition from empire to nation state entailed a shift from being located at the “core of the empire” to becoming a borderland, and dwindling from a county of 23,000 people with a strong export economy in 1914 to a provincial county, the economy of which had shrunk. By the 1920s and 1930s, after the Turkish Republic had been established, the county had a population of just a few thousand. Although the economy of Foçateyn was dominated by mining (salt, marble, stones for construction and millstones) and agricultural production (includ- ing important export goods such as raisins, grapes, olives and olive oil), its economic character was reshaped by an increasing volume of trade in the mid-nineteenth century. This was a result of the increasing European economic presence in Ottoman markets and of the globalisation of world markets, which occurred as the result of the industrialisation of shipping.3 In the spring of 1914, just before the unleashing of what I term “organised chaos”, which led to the forced migration and killing of Ottoman Greeks, the county’s 3. The industrialisation of shipping is a concept coined by maritime historians that refers to the drastic changes that took place in the nineteenth century. These changes were related to the volume of goods that were carried and the types of vessels traversing the world. Basi- cally, it refers to a transition from wood to steel and from sails to steam in the shipping industry. Downes argues that these changes in the shipping triggered further changes in the construction of modern waterfronts that constituted a part of the Ottoman modernisation process. Brant William Downes, Constructing the Modern Ottoman Waterfront: Salonica and Beirut in the late Nineteenth Century. (Unpublished PhD Thesis: Stanford University 2008), 3-5. 68 » Emre Erol population had swelled to nearly 23,000,4 the majority of whom were Otto- man Greeks. This included many Greeks (Ottoman or otherwise) who had migrated from the islands in the Aegean and beyond in search of better job opportunities.5 Muslims, whether Kurdish, Turkish or otherwise, had also long been residents in the county along with non-Muslims such as Greeks, Armenians and Jews. The native population, together with the almost omni- present migrants (whose numbers increased in the nineteenth century) were part of a cosmopolitan setting that reached its peak in the pre-World War One era. On any given day, one would have heard many languages in the harbour town of Eski Foça. However, by the early Republican period, Eski Foça was practically a deserted ghost town that had been demographically engineered into a “homogenous” national community. Less than one third of the original population remained. Devastated by constant warfare, migrations, banditry and state violence, Foçateyn lost its human resources, infrastructure and economic “know how.” The story of this radical transition in Eski Foça runs parallel to the story of a multidimensional period of change in the last century of the Ottoman Empire. Wars, European imperialism, capitalism, competing nationalisms of the elites as saviouur projects, intercommunal and interethnic tensions and modernisation reforms all played their part in this period of turmoil that resulted in the construction of nations such as Armenia, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. This occurred through the respec- tive nationalists’ mutual exclusion of entire communities from their lands, properties, identities or even lives. Many nation states in contemporary East- ern Europe and the Middle East emerged from this period of wars of rival nationalisms and the violence of intercommunal groups, interethnic groups and states. Charles Tilly’s well-known quotation brilliantly summarises the process of the creation of post-Ottoman nation states: “war made the state and the state made war.”6 The events that took place in Eski Foça in 1914 represent a chapter in the story of the transition from the Balkan Wars to the Turkish Republic, which is itself a smaller chapter within the greater transition from the Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic. 4. This number is based on the total number of residents of the county of Foçateyn in 1914. Since seasonal migration was a widespread phenomenon in the Western Anatolian region, it is not possible to give exact numbers for the settlements in the county. In spring, most of the residents in the county migrated to Eski Foça, which was the largest settlement in the county. 5. Most of the interviewees in the CAMI (Center of Asia Minor Institute, Athens) oral history documents (on ΠΑΛΙΕΣ ΦΟΚΙΕΣ and ΝΕΕΣ ΦΟΚΙΕΣ) state that either one or both of their parents are from the Kingdom of Greece. They also state that their parents are often islanders who previously resided on one of the Aegean islands. 6. Charles Tilly, “Reflections on the History of European State-Making”, in: Charles Tilly, (ed.), The Formation of National States in Western Europe. (Princeton 1975) 42. Organised chaos as diplomatic ruse and demographic weapon » 69 This article aims to contribute to this story of transitions with a discussion of a critical time in the history of the county of Foçateyn, one of the many bat- tlefields of competing nationalisms, by exploring one of the earliest examples of the use of demographic engineering as a weapon of warfare by the Otto- man political elite. It argues that this particular episode of demographic engineering was a result of realist war diplomacy, nationalism and the Muslim refugee phenomenon. This paper also aims to bring a new dimension to the larger discussion of the demographic violence in the late Ottoman Empire by discussing one of the earliest examples of such violence. The events of 1914 and the spreading of the Balkan tragedies When the Community of Union and Progress (cup) [İttihat ve Terakki Cemi- yeti] installed its dictatorship on 23 January 1913 with a successful coup d’état, the Balkan states had already reached the Midye-Enez line, a front stretching from the port town of Midye on the Aegean to the port town Enez on the Black Sea and passing just outside the imperial capital Istanbul.

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